Kurtis Trent is a character in Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. He crops up several times throughout the game, following Lara like a shadow. Later throughout the game be becomes a playable character for three levels.

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Biography

He is an ex-Legionnaire and also an experienced warrior with limited occult abilities. From the age of three, he was trained as an initiate in an ancient order called the Lux Veritatis by his father, Konstantin. At the age of 19, however, he disappeared to join the Foreign Legion and changed his surname to Trent. Here, he adopted the nickname 'Demon Hunter' after being constantly assaulted by bizarre events linked to the occult.

He left the Foreign Legion in 1996, and began freelancing with a variety of mercenary and semi-legal agencies under the direction of Marten Gunderson.

In 2001, just before the events of Angel of Darkness, his father is murdered by Eckhardt. It is here that Kurtis takes on his father's role as the last surviving member of the Order. He is now on a quest for revenge against those that wiped out the Order and killed his father.

In the game

Lara's first contact with Kurtis in the game is in the Café Metro, where he is sitting at a table in a corner. He doesn't speak to her. Their next encounter is in front of the Serpent Rouge, where he flees on his motorbike. Lara doesn't see him again until after the explosion in the Pawn Shop. He is sitting on a jetty, smoking a cigarette. Again, she isn't able to talk to him. She meets him again in the Louvre, where, in a very tense scene, he disarms Lara and steals her Obscura Painting.

After chasing Kurtis out of the Louvre, Lara is knocked unconscious by a guard. She wakes up to find Kurtis gone and a crystal shard on the ground beside her, which she pockets. Her next meeting with Kurtis takes place in the Strahov in Prague. He tells Lara that she has made a mess and that he has to correct her mistake by turning the power back on, although not before Lara taunts him with the crystal shard.

After their meeting in Prague, Kurtis and Lara decide to team up in an attempt to stop Eckhardt. Coming from the Vault of Trophies, Lara finds that Eckhardt has captured Kurtis. She gives Eckhardt the last Obscura Painting in exchange for Kurtis' life, and then the pair are left to the mercy of the mutant creature Boaz.

Using his psychic boost, Kurtis helps Lara to safety and faces Boaz alone. After a gruesome fight, Kurtis defeats his opponent, but is mortally wounded after being stabbed through the stomach.

In the final cutscene, Lara discovers Kurtis' Chirugai lying in a suspiciously large pool of blood. She picks it up, and it directs her towards a nearby doorway, perhaps indicating that Kurtis is still alive and able to wield it.

Fate

There has been much speculation about the apparent death of Kurtis. According to an official interview with Adrian Smith, a part had already been written for his character in the planned second and third games of the Angel of Darkness trilogy. A cliffhanger was introduced regarding Kurtis' ultimate fate at the end of the first game as an insurance policy, depending on fan reaction towards his character.

Theories about his fate are varied. However, as Eidos initially planned to continue the Angel of Darkness story into two more games it is a safe bet that he survived.

Response

Although receiving generally poor reviews from the gaming media, Angel of Darkness has inspired quite a number of fanfiction continuations and spin-offs, many focused around or including the character of Kurtis Trent. There is also a C2 community on fanfiction.net dedicated to the Lara/Kurtis relationship.

Kurtis has gained a number of fans, both male and female, since the release of Angel of Darkness. Most are members of the KTEB (Kurtis Trent Estrogen Brigade) an online Kurtis fanclub.